The Ben Shapiro Show - NOTE TO AMERICA-HATERS: Sorry, We’re Busy Kicking A**
Aired: 2026-04-07
Duration: 01:04:09


=== America's Exceptional Moment (02:34) ===

[00:00:00]  America is in a totally exceptional moment.
[00:00:02]  We're sending human beings around the moon for the first time in decades.
[00:00:05]  We're performing some of the most extraordinary military operations in human history.
[00:00:09]  We're killing terrorists.
[00:00:10]  We're delivering the most targeted strikes from the most sophisticated weaponry ever built.
[00:00:14]  We're rescuing pilots in Mission Impossible style operations.
[00:00:17]  All incredible stuff.
[00:00:19]  So, why the hell are so many people insistent that America is losing and should lose?
[00:00:24]  We'll get into the Iranian economic collapse, the human shield desperation of a dying theocracy, and New York City's 375 page manual.
[00:00:33]  On America's National Guilt, all on today's Ben Shapiro show.
[00:00:36]  Well, folks, yesterday the Artemis astronauts made history by traveling further than any human being has ever gone.
[00:00:47]  According to the Wall Street Journal, just before 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, the astronauts on Artemis 2 steered their Orion craft into the record books, flying more than 248,655 miles from Earth, which is the furthest that human beings have ever gone.
[00:01:02]  This is a picture of the flight path.
[00:01:04]  Again, human beings doing unbelievable things because America kicks absolute ass.
[00:01:09]  The president of the United States called up the Artemis crew to congratulate them yesterday, and here's what it sounded like.
[00:01:16]  Tell me what is the most unforgettable part of this really historic day?
[00:01:21]  The whole world is watching and listening.
[00:01:23]  Please tell me.
[00:01:32]  President, this call is certainly special to all of us and we really have a lot of faith in our administrator, Jared Isaacman, who is with you.
[00:01:39]  We appreciate his leadership in NASA and in the international community.
[00:01:42]  We are doing great things and we are proud to be a part of it.
[00:01:46]  I have to tell you, as we came around the near side of the moon, seeing all the sights that we've seen from Earth for all of our lives, but we're seeing them from a different perspective and then we started to get a glimpse of the and we saw sights, oriental, sights that no human has ever seen before, not even in Apollo, and that was amazing for us.
[00:02:04]  And then the surprise of the day, we just came out of an eclipse where the sun, moon, and the entire dark moon, about that big, right out the window that we were watching.
[00:02:15]  We could see the corona of the sun, and then we could see the planet train line up, and we're at Mars.
[00:02:21]  And all of us commented how excited we are to watch this nation and this planet become a two planet species.
[00:02:30]  America rocks.
[00:02:31]  This country just kicks ass.
[00:02:33]  And you know what?

=== Two Planet Species Vision (08:11) ===

[00:02:34]  It's part and parcel of a vision for the United States that is actually inspiring.
[00:02:39]  I know we don't talk about the United States in that way, or we haven't in the recent past, but America is an unbelievably inspiring place.
[00:02:46]  That's the reason why everyone is clamoring to get here.
[00:02:49]  Not just because we can put human beings 250,000 miles away going around the moon, but also because when people come here, they are inspired to create and to build and to build better lives for themselves and their families.
[00:03:03]  And because we offer them that opportunity, because the American system offers them that opportunity, and because America is, in fact, The guarantor of security on planet Earth.
[00:03:12]  Because the United States, the same United States that takes humans and puts them 250,000 miles away around the moon is the same United States that stands up to the thuggish, theocratic tyrants in Iran who want to develop nuclear weapons and develop intercontinental ballistic missiles and who wish to spread terrorism all over the region against us and our allies.
[00:03:34]  We stand up to them.
[00:03:35]  What President Trump is providing is an inspiring vision of what the United States should be.
[00:03:39]  And guess what?
[00:03:40]  We are making it happen in real time.
[00:03:42]  Now, the president in Iran has provided them an off ramp over and over and over and over again.
[00:03:46]  This is the part that everyone seems to just ignore.
[00:03:49]  If Iran did not wish to be in the gun sites of the U.S. military, all they would have to do is stop developing nuclear weapons, stop developing long range ballistic missiles, and stop funding terrorism.
[00:04:00]  That is all the things they would have to do.
[00:04:02]  That's it.
[00:04:02]  And they could have done this at any time for five zero years, for 50 years, they could have done this at any time.
[00:04:08]  They would have been reintegrated into the world economy.
[00:04:11]  They would have been treated as a member of the family of nations.
[00:04:14]  Their concerns would have been heard.
[00:04:16]  Instead, they decided that they were going to double down on their theocratic tyranny, that they were going to rush toward a nuclear weapon, that they were going to back every major terrorist group in the region and beyond.
[00:04:26]  They decided to do that.
[00:04:27]  That was their decision.
[00:04:29]  The difference is that this president understands that it is not in the interests of the United States to allow that cancer to fester.
[00:04:37]  That the gangrenous limb that is the Iranian government, not the Iranian people who are wonderful, the Iranian government, that gangrenous limb cannot be allowed to poison the entire region and beyond.
[00:04:46]  That's why the president took the stand that he is taking right now.
[00:04:49]  And guess what?
[00:04:50]  We are kicking the hell out of the Iranian military.
[00:04:54]  We are.
[00:04:54]  There is no standard in military history by which we are not kicking the hell out of them.
[00:04:59]  We have put their entire Navy under the water.
[00:05:01]  We have taken their entire Air Force out of the sky.
[00:05:04]  We have taken their ballistic missile launcher capacity to near zero.
[00:05:07]  We have destroyed their steel factories.
[00:05:10]  We have been hitting specific besieging checkpoints in Tehran.
[00:05:15]  We've been bombing every nuclear facility we can find.
[00:05:18]  And once again, the president is offering them an off ramp because all they can do in response to this, all they have done, again, all they would have to do is open the Strait of Hormuz and give up their nukes.
[00:05:26]  That would be it.
[00:05:27]  We'd be done.
[00:05:28]  We'd be done.
[00:05:28]  Open the Strait of Hormuz, give up your nukes.
[00:05:30]  It would be over.
[00:05:31]  That's all.
[00:05:32]  They won't do it.
[00:05:33]  Ask yourself why.
[00:05:34]  Why?
[00:05:36]  Truly.
[00:05:37]  We would give them a permanent ceasefire.
[00:05:39]  Truly.
[00:05:39]  If they opened up the Strait of Hormuz and give up their nukes, we would.
[00:05:46]  They won't do it.
[00:05:46]  And the reason they won't do it is because they must terrorize their people.
[00:05:50]  They must rush toward a nuclear weapon in order to preserve their tyrannical regime.
[00:05:54]  And they must harass the countries around them in order to gain some sort of power.
[00:05:59]  They have regional ambitions.
[00:06:01]  They have beyond regional ambitions.
[00:06:03]  I mean, if you look at the religiously Shiite rulership of Iran, ambitions are not restricted to Iran in their philosophy.
[00:06:12]  This notion that radical Islam is restricted to a small portion of the world, and if only we would leave them alone, they would leave us alone, ignores, you know, the entire history of radical Islam going back to about the year 700.
[00:06:24]  In any case, Iran was presented a proposal from the United States, and as the Wall Street Journal reported late yesterday, Iran then rejected it.
[00:06:34]  The regional mediators offered to end hostilities for 45 days in exchange for opening the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:06:40]  Okay, not even in exchange for the nuclear materials, just for opening the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:06:46]  President Trump reasserted the Tuesday evening deadline.
[00:06:50]  He said the entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.
[00:06:53]  He said that during a news conference yesterday.
[00:06:55]  Well, this morning, the president reiterated that on Truth Social.
[00:06:58]  He put out the following statement A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.
[00:07:03]  Now, of course, he doesn't mean that Persian civilization will die.
[00:07:06]  The reality is that Persian civilization will flourish and survive if the Iranian government dies.
[00:07:12]  Persian civilization has been ground under the boot heel of radical Islamic thugs for the last 50 years.
[00:07:20]  Persian culture goes back 2,000 years, 3,000 years.
[00:07:25]  The notion that the civilization itself is going to, maybe he means radical Islamic civilization.
[00:07:30]  That would be a welcome thing.
[00:07:32]  He says, I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.
[00:07:34]  However, now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.
[00:07:41]  Who knows?
[00:07:41]  We will find out tonight one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world.
[00:07:45]  47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end.
[00:07:48]  God bless the great people of Iran.
[00:07:50]  I know that there are a bunch of people who have dyspepsia over this.
[00:07:53]  And listen, I get the questions.
[00:07:54]  I do.
[00:07:55]  I get serious questions.
[00:07:56]  The questions about what happens to oil prices.
[00:07:58]  Do they temporarily go up if we, for example, bomb Khargay?
[00:08:02]  Yes.
[00:08:02]  Do we have an economic slowdown if the Straits of Hormuz remain a battleground for another month?
[00:08:10]  Perhaps.
[00:08:11]  What does the regime look like in two months?
[00:08:13]  These are all normal questions.
[00:08:16]  As we'll get to in a moment, those are not the questions that are being asked.
[00:08:19]  The questions that are being asked are about whether America ought to be a serious force on planet Earth.
[00:08:25]  Or whether it ought to recede into itself and become basically a European welfare state, useless to the world and dying on the vine, which so many people seem to want.
[00:08:36]  That's the part that puzzles me.
[00:08:38]  The questions don't puzzle me.
[00:08:39]  We answer those questions every day.
[00:08:41]  I take questions from friends on this, from family on this.
[00:08:45]  I mean, those are questions we have about every policy.
[00:08:47]  And let's be very honest about the approach the administration has taken to this conflict.
[00:08:52]  One of the reasons that they've not said that the goal is regime change is because that would necessitate.
[00:08:57]  Everything that would require regime change today.
[00:08:59]  And it may be that the goal here is just to weaken the regime.
[00:09:02]  So six months from now, a year from now, it just falls off.
[00:09:06]  That's possible.
[00:09:08]  Right.
[00:09:08]  Or maybe the goal here is to just weaken all of their forward capacities so much that we don't really care what they do internally as Americans.
[00:09:17]  And the reason that President Trump has not been absolutely 100% clear on quote unquote the final goal is because he's been clear about the military goals.
[00:09:25]  The question that people have is about the geostrategic goals.
[00:09:28]  Like, do we want the regime to survive or do we not?
[00:09:30]  And the reason that President Trump hasn't said that he wants the regime to just fall is because that might necessitate using means he does not wish to use.
[00:09:37]  And many of the questions that are being asked are kind of silly.
[00:09:41]  What are the specific things that you are going to do?
[00:09:42]  Well, no one worth his salt is going to tell you the specific things he's going to do in the middle of a war.
[00:09:47]  That's silly.
[00:09:48]  So, what level of specificity do we need answers to?
[00:09:51]  But again, there are honest questions.
[00:09:52]  There are good discussions that can be had on all sides, people expressing honest concerns.
[00:09:56]  And then there's the thing that's actually happening in the online world and beyond, which is a true belief that America exerting power on planet Earth is inherently bad, that it is better if America is weak, that it is better if America is focused only.
[00:10:12]  On the welfare programs of the United States and ignores everything happening on the rest of planet Earth as though it doesn't affect us.
[00:10:20]  And as though if we just pour money into the welfare programs of the United States, suddenly everyone is better off, which again is a very left wing point of view, economically speaking, and not borne out by the evidence.
[00:10:30]  In any case, yesterday the president did the Easter egg roll.
[00:10:33]  It was a very bizarre sort of visual juxtaposition.
[00:10:35]  The president kicked off an Easter egg roll, and here's what it looked like.
[00:10:41]  Everybody, I got no.
[00:10:43]  This is very athletic.
[00:10:44]  Focus.

=== Iran Strike Possibilities (02:27) ===

[00:10:45]  Total focus.
[00:10:46]  Is everybody focused?
[00:10:48]  Ready?
[00:10:49]  Get set.
[00:10:50]  Okay, well, the president was then told by a child that he was the best, and President Trump gave a very, very Trumpian response.
[00:11:03]  Donald Trump, you're the best.
[00:11:06]  Thank you, honey.
[00:11:06]  I agree.
[00:11:10]  Thank you.
[00:11:10]  I agree.
[00:11:12]  That's pretty great.
[00:11:12]  Okay, well, President Trump.
[00:11:14]  He then was talking about the, he did a press conference where he talked about the conflict in Iran.
[00:11:19]  And he started off by saying, Iran could be taken out tonight.
[00:11:22]  We could take them out anytime we want, which, again, it's unclear exactly what he means by this.
[00:11:28]  But the lack of strategic clarity, the lack of clarity is the point.
[00:11:32]  When you are trying to say everything is on the table, you're going to be unclear.
[00:11:38]  In a moment, we'll get to what President Trump is still threatening first.
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[00:12:59]  So the president said yesterday that Iran could be taken out tonight.
[00:13:03]  Here's what he had to say.
[00:13:06]  The entire country could be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.

=== CarShield Sponsor Segment (09:26) ===

[00:13:13]  And the president added that the Iranian people actually are yearning for their freedom.
[00:13:18]  There are a lot of people out there who are saying the Iranian people are very much against this bombing.
[00:13:21]  Have you taken a poll lately?
[00:13:22]  How would you know that?
[00:13:24]  Seriously, they were in the streets by the millions protesting the regime before we got into this current conflict.
[00:13:30]  What is your data that the Iranian people want us to stop and leave the regime in place, empowered and strengthened?
[00:13:36]  What is your evidence for that?
[00:13:37]  Here's the president.
[00:13:39]  Why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure, to cut off their power?
[00:13:43]  Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime?
[00:13:47]  They would be willing to, and it's suffering, they would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom.
[00:13:54]  The Iranians have, and we've had numerous intercepts.
[00:13:58]  Please keep bombing.
[00:13:59]  Bombs that are dropping near their homes.
[00:14:02]  Please keep bombing.
[00:14:04]  Do it.
[00:14:05]  And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding.
[00:14:09]  And when we leave and we're not.
[00:14:11]  Hitting those areas.
[00:14:12]  They're saying, please come back, come back, come back.
[00:14:15]  These are the people.
[00:14:17]  I don't know what they do.
[00:14:18]  All I can tell you is they want freedom.
[00:14:22]  He is right.
[00:14:23]  He's right.
[00:14:24]  You know how I know he's right?
[00:14:25]  Because Iran is shutting down the internet.
[00:14:27]  If you're wrong, Iran would have opened up the internet, said they could have flooded the internet with Iranians screaming for the president to stop.
[00:14:34]  The problem for the Iranians is that if they open up the internet, the Iranians would be giving us a target bank.
[00:14:39]  That is the reality.
[00:14:40]  The Iranian people would be giving us a target bank.
[00:14:43]  Of places that we should hit if they opened up the internet.
[00:14:46]  The tell is always in the action.
[00:14:49]  We will talk about other tells that show kind of the moral difference between the United States and Iran in a little while, because it's pretty insane the way that Iran is responding to the current conflict.
[00:15:00]  The president was asked about religion and God, and he said, listen, in his opinion, God supports this.
[00:15:09]  You've said, glory be to God in this conflict.
[00:15:12]  Do you believe that God supports the United States' actions in this conflict?
[00:15:15]  I do, because God is good.
[00:15:17]  Because God is good and God wants to see people taken care of.
[00:15:22]  God doesn't like what's happening.
[00:15:24]  I don't like what's happening.
[00:15:25]  Everyone says, I enjoy it.
[00:15:26]  I don't enjoy this.
[00:15:27]  I don't enjoy it.
[00:15:28]  These two guys don't enjoy it.
[00:15:29]  You know, people say, oh boy, they're so tough.
[00:15:32]  They don't like seeing people killed.
[00:15:34]  I've ended eight wars.
[00:15:37]  Nobody's ever done it.
[00:15:39]  The person who won the Nobel Prize came to me and said, You deserve the Nobel Prize.
[00:15:44]  She announced that when they announced, they said, Goes to Maria.
[00:15:48]  She's a great person, really a good person.
[00:15:50]  She said, No, no, no.
[00:15:52]  This is ridiculous.
[00:15:54]  They gave me the Nobel Prize.
[00:15:56]  President Trump aimed at eight wars.
[00:15:58]  I could go over every one of them, including India and Pakistan, where the Prime Minister of Pakistan said President Trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives.
[00:16:09]  That makes me much happier than what we're doing right now.
[00:16:12]  That makes me much happier.
[00:16:14]  We have one more to end, by the way.
[00:16:18]  And again, when the president says that he thinks that God supports the United States when we take out tyrannical dictators, when we kill Ayatollah Khamenei, a mass murderer, when we try to destroy the forward function of terror groups, he is correct about this.
[00:16:34]  See, here's the thing you're seeing a lot of people who have, shall we say, a casual acquaintance with scripture, like who admit that they had not fully read through the Bible until two to three years ago, who are suddenly, it turns out, bishops in their church.
[00:16:47]  It's amazing how quickly they have learned biblical literacy.
[00:16:51]  You know, these are the same people who will sit across from guests who tell them that the Bible is actually socialist and anti capitalist.
[00:16:57]  These characters.
[00:16:58]  Well, it turns out that for those of us who have spent a lot of time engaging with the scriptures, and here I'm talking specifically about the original Hebrew scriptures, it turns out that the Psalms, for example, are filled with calls to crush oppressors and deliver the weak and needy from the hands of the wicked and to break the arm of the evildoer.
[00:17:18]  Literally zero things in scripture suggest that Western civilization has some sort of a duty.
[00:17:24]  To uphold the rule of wicked Islamist theocrats who murder their own people en masse, spread terrorism throughout the region, desire the defenestration of Christianity, yes, ask the Shia leaders of Iran what they think about Christianity, and threaten the West directly.
[00:17:39]  Nothing in scripture suggests that going along with those plans is somehow scripturally mandated.
[00:17:45]  Nothing.
[00:17:46]  We can have honest conversations about just wars and unjust wars.
[00:17:49]  I've had those conversations with some of my Catholic friends, people like Matt Fradd or Matt Walsh.
[00:17:54]  Those are good conversations.
[00:17:55]  That is not the conversation that many people are having today.
[00:17:58]  And the president is right about this.
[00:18:01]  You know, when it comes to global affairs, God speaks pretty frequently in the Bible about global affairs and geopolitics and the way that tyrants ought to be treated.
[00:18:11]  And I have yet to see the part of the Bible where it says that Islamist theocrats must be maintained in power.
[00:18:18]  And by the way, you're not allowed to mock radical Islamism, which is a position taken by Tucker Carlson, as we'll get to shortly.
[00:18:26]  Well, the president then went on and he said, Listen, these people in Iran, they're BS artists.
[00:18:31]  That's why they've been BSing everybody else for 47 years.
[00:18:34]  I will not be BSed.
[00:18:36]  He is correct about this.
[00:18:37]  And he deserves full merit for this.
[00:18:39]  He does.
[00:18:43]  I honestly do not understand how either this has become a partisan issue or why it would split a conservative right that is focused on making America great again.
[00:18:54]  If you want America to be great in the world, if you want America to be what America has historically been, When it has been at its greatest, it is when it is doing things like we are doing right now, like what we are watching right now.
[00:19:08]  Here's the president.
[00:19:10]  They don't have any mind droppers anymore, but they put them on other boats and they could drop them.
[00:19:14]  I'm not even sure they have any minds yet, by the way.
[00:19:16]  I'm not sure.
[00:19:18]  Personally, they say there might be eight.
[00:19:20]  I don't know.
[00:19:21]  I don't know.
[00:19:21]  I think there might be none because they're very good bullshit artists.
[00:19:26]  That's why for 47 years they've been bullshitting other presidents and they haven't done the job.
[00:19:33]  And now, the president did unleash one of the great, I will say, American pictures in modern history yesterday.
[00:19:39]  He was standing next to the Easter Bunny because, again, they were at the Easter egg roll and he was commenting on global affairs next to the Easter Bunny, who was last seen guiding Joe Biden away from reporters.
[00:19:54]  Well, this Easter Bunny was not going to be stopping President Trump.
[00:19:58]  It's just wonderful.
[00:19:59]  Here was the president yesterday.
[00:20:00]  I know.
[00:20:00]  They were giving me a briefing about that.
[00:20:03]  And they said, normally, when you're in very hostile, territory and I don't think it gets much more hostile than Iran.
[00:20:10]  They're capable fighters.
[00:20:11]  They're very tough people and there are others like that.
[00:20:15]  You don't mind when the enemy is weak, but that enemy is strong.
[00:20:19]  Not so strong like they were about a month ago.
[00:20:21]  I can tell you, in fact, right now they're not too strong at all, in my opinion, but we're soon going to find out, aren't we?
[00:20:27]  But when a thing like that happens where a pilot shot down, in most instances you're really not able to go in because you'll go in with 200 people and lots of jet fighters and helicopters and You really don't have a chance.
[00:20:43]  They get shot down.
[00:20:44]  You lose 200 in order to pick up one.
[00:20:46]  It's a horrible thing, but it's very rare that you can do it.
[00:20:49]  And what we did yesterday is we picked up not one, we picked up two.
[00:20:53]  We kept the first one quiet, and we were able to keep it quiet for about a day, which made it a lot better.
[00:20:59]  But those two pilots were incredible, brave, and we thank them.
[00:21:05]  The Easter Bunny was standing there for confirmation.
[00:21:08]  I'm sorry, it's just funny.
[00:21:10]  There's no way to say that it is funny.
[00:21:12]  Well, the president was asked yesterday at this press conference about his post from Sunday, in which he said that these crazy bastards should give up the effing straight or we're going to bomb them into the Stone Age.
[00:21:22]  And somebody was getting very offended about all of this.
[00:21:24]  And the president said, I don't care, which.
[00:21:29]  Here he was.
[00:21:31]  Yesterday in your Truth Social, you called the Iranians crazy bastards.
[00:21:35]  True.
[00:21:36]  What is your response to critics who say that.
[00:21:39]  I don't care about correctness.
[00:21:40]  What is your response to critics who say that it is your mental health that should perhaps be examined as this war continues?
[00:21:45]  I haven't heard that.
[00:21:46]  But if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people like me because our country was being ripped off on trade, on everything for many years until I came along.
[00:21:56]  So if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people.
[00:22:00]  The president did say yesterday that he would consider taking the oil.
[00:22:04]  Now, again, a lot of people having a lot of heartburn about this statement.
[00:22:08]  But here he was.
[00:22:11]  We are a partner with Venezuela, and we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels, hundreds of millions.
[00:22:19]  Over 100 million barrels already is in Houston, refined, and out.
[00:22:25]  And paid for that war many, many times over.
[00:22:28]  Many times over.
[00:22:29]  You know, the old days, to the victim.
[00:22:32]  Okay, you know that.
[00:22:36]  To the winner belong the spoils, go the spoils.

=== Nuclear Weapons Concerns (15:09) ===

[00:22:39]  And I've said, why don't we use it?
[00:22:41]  To the victor go the spoils.
[00:22:46]  Okay, so a lot of people upset about this.
[00:22:49]  Okay, now here, here's the thing.
[00:22:51]  The idea is not that we're just going to go in, grab literally all the oil for ourselves and leave nothing for the Iranian people.
[00:22:56]  First of all, let's be clear.
[00:22:58]  Every barrel of oil that is getting shipped right now goes not to the benefit of the Iranian people.
[00:23:02]  It goes to the Iranian government, which uses that oil to suppress their own people and shoot them.
[00:23:08]  Also, if we were to help manage their oil supply, if, for example, the government were to change its orientation and be reintegrated into the world economy, and we are allowed to bring American companies in to actually help pump that oil, We would probably double the amount of oil they are currently producing.
[00:23:23]  At its height, Iran is producing 3.2 million barrels of oil per day, somewhere in that neighborhood.
[00:23:28]  If we fixed their position in the world and their industry, that number would probably double, and the revenue would flow back to the Iranian people, unlike now when it all flows to the Iranian government, the IRGC, and the besieging.
[00:23:39]  That is literally the model we are using in Venezuela.
[00:23:43]  We are currently holding money in escrow so it doesn't go to shore up the communist regime to suppress the people.
[00:23:49]  In a second, we'll get to what.
[00:23:50]  What comes next?
[00:23:51]  What is the next thing on the table for the United States, for Israel, in this joint operation?
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[00:25:08]  Hey, so all of this raises the question of what comes next, because of course, 8 p.m. tonight is supposed to be the deadline for negotiations.
[00:25:16]  Well, the answer from the Wall Street Journal, and I've heard this from sources both American and Israeli because it's a joint operation, is that Iran's economy is next on the table.
[00:25:26]  Which makes perfect sense.
[00:25:28]  That to take out the final pillars of the Iranian government, you have to permanently damage their economic status.
[00:25:33]  Because if they don't have money to pay their people, it makes it very difficult for them to survive and also to spread their terrorism forward.
[00:25:41]  According to the Wall Street Journal, quoting Avner Golov, a former Israeli national security official, the U.S. and Israel are signaling we're serious.
[00:25:48]  And if you continue not to agree to end the war, the price you'll pay to your economy is going to be higher and higher.
[00:25:55]  And of course, Iran has been firing at a wide variety of energy facilities in the region already.
[00:26:01]  Israel knocked out sites responsible for 85% of Iran's petrochemical exports, according to Israeli Defense Minister Katz.
[00:26:11]  That represents something like 30% to 35% of their export revenue.
[00:26:16]  So is that likely to get worse for them?
[00:26:18]  Yes.
[00:26:19]  There are already preliminary strikes that are taking place.
[00:26:21]  So this morning, footage of Kharg Island being hit.
[00:26:26]  Started to cross the internet.
[00:26:29]  That footage is apparently of particular sites on Karg Island.
[00:26:36]  So, this is not bombing the actual oil facilities or storage facilities or refineries on Karg Island yet.
[00:26:41]  And it's not even bombing the landing docks, which would allow for the shipping to and fro of the oil.
[00:26:46]  Instead, according to Jen Griffin of Fox News, the targets the United States hit included bunkers, radar stations, and ammo storage.
[00:26:53]  So, it's quite possible that what we are doing right now, and these are U.S. strikes.
[00:26:58]  It is possible what we are doing right now is taking out their defensive installations in preparation for either a taking of Karg Island, which again, I think has been the longest telegraphed punch in modern history, or just blowing it up.
[00:27:10]  If we were to blow it up, they would be permanently damaged.
[00:27:12]  It would take out 90% of their economy.
[00:27:14]  They just would have no money.
[00:27:17]  Meanwhile, Iranian railways are being hit as well.
[00:27:21]  And so the sites continue to be hit.
[00:27:24]  Iran has responded by basically saying that they don't want to negotiate.
[00:27:28]  Now, again, One of the things I think that Americans need to understand, and this has been true throughout American history, sometimes you run up against an enemy that is so intransigent that against their own interests they refuse to surrender.
[00:27:40]  The reason that the United States had to use nuclear weapons at the end of World War II is because the Japanese government knew they were going to lose and felt that they could somehow reach a negotiated settlement with the United States more advantageous to them if millions of their own citizens were killed in a long battle for the home islands of Japan.
[00:27:58]  In fact, there was a segment of the Japanese government that was so extreme at the end of World War II that after both Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been hit, afterward, the emperor recorded a message surrendering.
[00:28:12]  This faction attempted to overthrow the emperor and take the recording before it could air to prevent surrender after both sites had been hit.
[00:28:22]  The Iranian regime, meaning the mullahs, and particularly the IRGC, are of that sort.
[00:28:29]  Now, maybe the president is talking to other people in the country.
[00:28:32]  Maybe the president of the country, Pzeszkian, who's widely perceived, as I've said before, as a very weak character, perhaps he's negotiating.
[00:28:39]  But it is absolutely unclear at this point whether such people even have power.
[00:28:45]  The IRGC may basically just be gambling, Taliban like, that they'll ride this bomb all the way into the dirt.
[00:28:52]  That may be what's happening.
[00:28:53]  And we don't understand that because that is not how we think.
[00:28:56]  But that is certainly how they think.
[00:28:58]  Iran is.
[00:29:01]  Honestly, anyone who's telling you that Iran is winning right now, I don't even understand how you could come to that conclusion.
[00:29:05]  You could have questions about whether we are going to get everything we could possibly seek in this war.
[00:29:09]  Again, that's a normal question.
[00:29:11]  You can ask whether we are going to have any sort of long lasting repercussions from the Strait of Hormuz situation.
[00:29:18]  Again, a normal question.
[00:29:19]  But Iran has been relegated to putting out AI videos of their current supreme leader, Moshtaba Khamenei, entering a command center.
[00:29:28]  This is AI video of him in a war room.
[00:29:32]  You want to know why it's AI video?
[00:29:34]  Because he's in a coma.
[00:29:37]  Because he's half dead.
[00:29:39]  He's been dead for weeks.
[00:29:42]  Here's that AI video.
[00:29:43]  This is insane.
[00:29:57]  And of course, he's standing in front of a map of the Dimona nuclear reactors that are going to hit Dimona, which is Israel's nuclear site.
[00:30:03]  Um, he's in a coma.
[00:30:06]  He is not alive.
[00:30:08]  He is not fully alive.
[00:30:10]  He put out a tweet yesterday.
[00:30:11]  And when I say he put out a tweet, I mean his prone body somehow reached out from beyond the quasi grave to put out a tweet in which he lauded the armed forces jihadi ideals.
[00:30:24]  He said, The unbroken ranks of the combatants and fighters on the path of truth in Islamic Iran, along with the self sacrificing armed forces, form such a towering, deeply rooted front that terrorism and crime cannot even crack their resolve for jihadi ideals.
[00:30:36]  Yeah, this sounds like a moderate.
[00:30:38]  This sounds like somebody we should allow to pursue nuclear weapons.
[00:30:41]  Well, the good news is that he didn't tweet that at all because he is in a coma, according to the Times of London.
[00:30:46]  You know, you're not doing great when you're basically doing the movie Dave, but Iranian Ayatollah version.
[00:30:53]  You got the actual Ayatollah in the back in a coma.
[00:30:57]  So, you go and you find like an impersonator via AI and put him out there to tweet.
[00:31:02]  According to the Times of London, he is incapacitated and receiving medical treatment in the holy city of Qom, according to an intelligence assessment, which suggests he is not capable of running the country.
[00:31:12]  Apparently, he is unconscious and being treated for a severe medical condition.
[00:31:16]  It is possible that the condition is being dead.
[00:31:19]  The memo also says that the intelligence agencies identified the preparation of laying the groundworks needed to build a large mausoleum in Qom for more than one grave, suggesting that other family members and possibly Moshtaba himself. Could be buried alongside his dad.
[00:31:35]  And meanwhile, President Pzeszkian is putting out statements about how 14 million Iranians are enlisted.
[00:31:41]  Sure, sure.
[00:31:42]  He says more than 14 million proud Iranians have so far registered to sacrifice their lives to defend Iran.
[00:31:47]  I too have been, am, and will remain devoted to giving my life for Iran.
[00:31:50]  Well, he may get his wish depending on how the rest of the week goes.
[00:31:53]  How do you know things are going poorly for the Iranians, aside from the fact they're putting out AI videos of their leader who is in a coma?
[00:32:01]  Iranian state TV is now telling young people, like students, like children, to go form human shields around power plants.
[00:32:10]  Ahead of President Trump's deadline for the bridges and the power plants.
[00:32:13]  Okay, so this says a couple things.
[00:32:14]  One, this is not something strong countries do.
[00:32:16]  If you aren't in a good military position, you're not calling out the youth to go.
[00:32:22]  This is something that the Nazi regime does in the final days in Berlin, where they call out the 12 year olds and they're like, okay, guys, here's a pistol, go at it.
[00:32:29]  That is where Iran is.
[00:32:30]  They are now asking or telling or forcing civilian 12 year olds to stand around power plants ahead of President Trump's deadline.
[00:32:40]  So again, number one, it shows they're incredibly weak.
[00:32:43]  Number two, you know what else it shows?
[00:32:44]  It shows that they know that the United States actually cares about human rights.
[00:32:49]  I know, this is the dirty secret.
[00:32:51]  The dirty secret is the reason that terrorists use human shields is because they believe it will deter Western powers from hitting the targets.
[00:32:58]  This is why, when people suggested that Israel was committing atrocities in Gaza, they were doing a genocide in Gaza, and then those same people will say that Israel is killing human shields.
[00:33:10]  The question is, why is the human shield in the first place?
[00:33:12]  You know what I would never do?
[00:33:14]  You know what I would never do?
[00:33:15]  I would never take my own kids and put them in front of me in the face of a terrorist.
[00:33:19]  You know why?
[00:33:19]  Because I know the terrorist will kill me and my kid.
[00:33:22]  The reason to use a human shield is because you believe that it will deter humane people from doing the thing you don't want them to do.
[00:33:28]  That is literally the purpose of doing this.
[00:33:30]  So, the same people claiming that America is deliberate, if you're Ryan Grimm and you're claiming that America deliberately targets school children at a school, explain to me this.
[00:33:39]  Why then would the Iranians put school children around power plants?
[00:33:43]  It would make no sense because the United States would be, hey, cool, look, school children, let's kill them.
[00:33:47]  That would be the logic.
[00:33:48]  But of course, that's not the logic.
[00:33:50]  They're all lying.
[00:33:51]  The United States is an incredibly humane power.
[00:33:54]  The most humane great power in the history of all humane powers.
[00:33:58]  We are not, in fact, the world's greatest terror apparatus, as Dave Smith has suggested.
[00:34:04]  That is not correct.
[00:34:06]  And the way you know that is by the way that our enemies are treating us.
[00:34:10]  According to Ali Reza Rahimi, identified by Iranian state TV as the secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents, he said, I invite all young people, athletes, artists, students, and university students and their professors to gather at 2 p.m. Tuesday around the power plants that are our national assets and capital.
[00:34:25]  Regardless of any taste or political viewpoint, they belong to the future of Iran and to the Iranian youth.
[00:34:31]  So, what an invitation.
[00:34:34]  Would you go?
[00:34:35]  Sounds like an invitation.
[00:34:36]  Okay, so if we're going to talk, by the way, about actual war crimes, we should note that that is a war crime.
[00:34:43]  Using human shields is the war crime.
[00:34:46]  That's the war crime because we are trying to deter people from doing this thing.
[00:34:51]  In a second, we'll get to those people who are trying to undermine the president and try to undermine the war by claiming he's a war criminal, claiming that.
[00:34:58]  He's insulting Islam.
[00:35:00]  Yeah, it's getting weird out there.
[00:35:01]  First, let's be real.
[00:35:02]  There's a lot in your life you actually have to keep track of.
[00:35:04]  You got tons of passwords, and they're all in different places, and you have to try every password 20 times in order to get to what you want.
[00:35:09]  You got your kids' school and sports schedules that are a disaster zone.
[00:35:13]  Your business, to do listed, it just never ends.
[00:35:15]  Well, for all the stuff we do remember, we often forget about something that's actually really, really important.
[00:35:20]  What happens to your family financially if, God forbid, something happens to you?
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[00:36:24]  Meanwhile, our fifth columnist at home who would like for America to erode, who would like for America to lose, many of them are just lying.
[00:36:31]  So the New York Times is putting out a piece today titled, quote, Trump revels in threats to commit war crimes in Iran.
[00:36:38]  What is the threat to commit a war crime?
[00:36:40]  That he said he was going to blow up the bridges and the power plants.
[00:36:43]  Well, just going to point out that threat is not a war crime.
[00:36:48]  And it's not even a war crime to blow up bridges and power plants.
[00:36:52]  It depends on the purpose.
[00:36:54]  It literally depends on the purpose.
[00:36:56]  You have Ro Khanna doing the same routine, the California congressman.
[00:37:01]  He says, oh, he's threatening war crimes, and war crimes won't end the war.
[00:37:04]  Tell us more about ending wars, Ro Khanna.
[00:37:08]  Let me tell you what won't reopen the Strait of Formula One threatening war crimes of bombing indiscriminately power plants, cursing at Iran.
[00:37:17]  What we need is statesmanship like President Obama had.
[00:37:21]  What we need to do is to stop the bombing, have a ceasefire, and then to work with Oman, to work with China, to work with the Gulf allies and European allies to have a solution to allow Hormuz to be open.
[00:37:33]  But it's not going to happen by massive escalation.
[00:37:36]  Is there any scenario where you would support new funding if it was determined necessary for the readiness of the military?
[00:37:42]  No, I'm not supporting new funding.
[00:37:44]  I mean, they're asking for $400 billion.

=== War Crimes and Bridges (13:43) ===

[00:37:49]  So, I mean, let's just be clear at the very end there.
[00:37:51]  He's asked about funding the military, like ongoing operations and also restocking the stuff that we're using.
[00:37:57]  And he says, no.
[00:37:58]  Yes, that's right.
[00:37:59]  There's a group of people in the United States, and it is quite large, who would rather starve the military for future conflicts, even if you don't like this conflict, than fund the military.
[00:38:08]  So, I'm just going to point out at this point, it is not automatically a war crime to bomb bridges and energy infrastructure.
[00:38:13]  Of course it isn't.
[00:38:14]  It's happened in pretty much every war under international law, which again, I don't care about international law, but some, because international law is a construct, Of a group of nations who don't abide by it.
[00:38:24]  I don't care what the Chinese and Russians have to say about international law, but some international law has been adopted domestically via the War Crimes Act of 1996.
[00:38:34]  So, under international law as adopted domestically, which is the part I care about, a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 would be considered a war crime.
[00:38:43]  So, what would that include?
[00:38:44]  It would include extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
[00:38:52]  Now, notice that clause.
[00:38:54]  Okay, it's not just.
[00:38:55]  Extensive destruction and appropriation of property.
[00:38:57]  That alone is not the problem.
[00:38:58]  It has to be not justified by military necessity and it must be carried out both unlawfully and wantonly.
[00:39:05]  That standard would require reckless disregard for the asset's status as a civilian object and it would require no legitimate military purpose.
[00:39:15]  And then we have something called the Department of Defense Law of War Manual that goes into more detail.
[00:39:19]  Commanders are supposed to weigh the concrete and direct military advantage against the incidental harm to civilians.
[00:39:25]  Energy grids and bridges.
[00:39:27]  Are considered dual use in most circumstances, proportionality must be weighed.
[00:39:32]  So, in other words, it is not automatically a war crime to say that we're going to blow up the bridges and blow up energy plants.
[00:39:38]  That is not a war crime.
[00:39:40]  Every individual strike has to be justified in this way.
[00:39:43]  Well, how about human shields?
[00:39:45]  One of my favorite idiocies is people who are out there claiming, and it's insane to me that people fall for this trick, that if a terrorist immediately grabs a human shield, now the terrorist just automatically wins.
[00:39:56]  You do that, and what do you think you're doing?
[00:39:58]  You are literally incentivizing hostage taking and the use of human shields.
[00:40:01]  Yashmaks, you.
[00:40:03]  So, what is the status of human shields?
[00:40:06]  Under international and domestic law, using human shields is the war crime.
[00:40:13]  That's the war crime.
[00:40:15]  Not the going after the terrorist who's using the human shield, the human shield's use is a war crime.
[00:40:21]  And if you volunteer into being a human shield, then there's a pretty solid debate in the legal community about your status now.
[00:40:30]  If you just walk onto a battlefield and stand in front of a Nazi brigade voluntarily, you don't get to claim it's safe.
[00:40:39]  We're not playing tag here.
[00:40:40]  You don't get to walk into the middle of a war zone, waving your arms and shouting that you're a civilian, and then everybody stops firing.
[00:40:47]  That is not the way that it works.
[00:40:50]  In short, the party that uses human shields is responsible for the harm to civilians.
[00:40:55]  The attacker still has to exercise the principle of proportionality, right?
[00:40:59]  That is the rule.
[00:41:00]  That is the rule.
[00:41:01]  But again, there is a group of people out there who are very invested, very invested in the idea that America is doing something horrible, that America is, in fact, a terrible place.
[00:41:11]  People who are, at this point, pretty much openly hoping that America loses in Iran.
[00:41:19]  So, yesterday, Tucker Carlson released what can only be described as an episode in which he appears to be suffering from some sort of mental break.
[00:41:28]  It's very hard to explain this otherwise.
[00:41:30]  So, Tucker had many things to say in this episode, including, by the way, suggesting that Christianity mandates socialism, which, strange.
[00:41:39]  I'll leave it to my Christian friends to debunk that one.
[00:41:42]  But I'm going to say, don't think so.
[00:41:46]  Don't think so.
[00:41:48]  And then Tucker starts.
[00:41:50]  Yelling about how President Trump should not mock Muslims, which, okay, here he was yesterday.
[00:42:01]  Who do you think you are?
[00:42:03]  You're tweeting out the F word on Easter morning?
[00:42:09]  You'll be living in hell.
[00:42:11]  Just watch.
[00:42:12]  Praise be to Allah.
[00:42:16]  So obviously, you're mocking the religion of Iran.
[00:42:22]  Okay.
[00:42:23]  If you seek a religious war, that's a good idea.
[00:42:28]  But by the way, no decent person mocks other people's religions.
[00:42:33]  You may have a problem with the theology.
[00:42:35]  Presumably, you do if it's not your religion, and you can explain what that is.
[00:42:39]  But to mock other people's faith is to mock the idea of faith itself.
[00:42:44]  And we should never mock that.
[00:42:49]  The hypocrisy might cause an aneurysm here.
[00:42:52]  This is the same person who.
[00:42:54]  Was mocking, quote unquote, the hummus eaters not all that long ago.
[00:42:58]  This is the same person who has said that Christian Zionists are the people he hates most on planet Earth, who spent pretty much every episode of his show attacking, quote unquote, dispensationalists and mainline evangelical Protestants.
[00:43:09]  Don't mock religion as long as that religion is Islam, says Tucker Carlson.
[00:43:13]  And then, of course, he says that Trump is going to commit war crimes.
[00:43:17]  Again, there are plenty of questions you can ask.
[00:43:19]  I don't know how many times I have to say it.
[00:43:21]  There are lots of questions you can ask about any American action, abroad or at home.
[00:43:25]  That is not what's happening here.
[00:43:26]  What is happening here is a demoralization effort by a person who wishes for America to minimize its presence on planet Earth, who agrees full scale with Alexander Dugan in the multipolarity model whereby we surrender power to Russia and China.
[00:43:39]  That's not speculation.
[00:43:40]  He says it himself.
[00:43:42]  And if you take that seriously as America first, if America first means you can't joke about radical Islam, you should leave in power radical Islamic tyrants trying to gain nuclear weapons, we need to cede power to China and Russia.
[00:43:57]  Russia, by the way, is amazing and has terrific subway stations and grocery stores.
[00:44:02]  And it's so much cleaner than any other American city.
[00:44:06]  We should maybe model ourselves on them.
[00:44:08]  Sharia law might be great in terms of cleaning up Americans.
[00:44:11]  And then you say at the end of that, that's what America first means.
[00:44:15]  I have some questions.
[00:44:17]  Here is Tucker Carlson saying that President Trump is a war criminal.
[00:44:22]  Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, shows up at the White House yesterday to pray over the president so he will have wisdom and restraint.
[00:44:30]  No.
[00:44:32]  To endorse the murder of civilians, which is a war crime, but more important, it's a moral crime.
[00:44:43]  You can't kill people who have committed no crime, who did nothing wrong.
[00:44:47]  You can't murder the innocent.
[00:44:48]  You can't kill kids and women.
[00:44:52]  And yet, Franklin Graham is up there standing at the podium praying for that.
[00:45:01]  What a slander.
[00:45:02]  The idea that Franklin Graham is praying that President Trump kills civilians is a lie.
[00:45:06]  It's a full scale lie.
[00:45:07]  By the way, the only person I know here who has endorsed killing civilians full scale is Tucker Carlson, who says that Vladimir Putin just has to do that sometimes.
[00:45:17]  It's totally incredible.
[00:45:19]  And then, of course, he sort of weirdly implied that Trump was subject to spiritual energies or something.
[00:45:27]  Here was Tucker.
[00:45:29]  Is it possible that what you're watching is a very stealthy, Yet incredibly effective attack on what, from a Christian perspective, is the true faith, belief in Jesus.
[00:45:43]  Is that what really is under attack here?
[00:45:45]  Is that what, maybe that's what's been under attack for a long time.
[00:45:49]  Maybe our whole lifetime.
[00:45:51]  Maybe almost everything we see is an attack on that faith.
[00:45:58]  The one faith that is always attacked.
[00:46:01]  Always and everywhere.
[00:46:02]  For 2,000 years, it's one, many faiths have been attacked.
[00:46:04]  Many religious people of different religions have been killed over the past 2,000 years.
[00:46:09]  But there's been only one sustained effort to exterminate a faith, and that's the Christian faith.
[00:46:18]  Could that be part of it?
[00:46:20]  And is it possible that the president sees this not just in geostrategic terms, in military terms, in economic terms, got open the straight?
[00:46:28]  Okay.
[00:46:29]  Is it possible the president sees this in bigger terms?
[00:46:34]  Sees this as the fulfillment of something or the elevation to some higher office beyond President of the United States?
[00:46:42]  That's entirely possible.
[00:46:45]  I'll leave it to my Christian friends to determine whether he is actually calling the president the Antichrist, which, I mean, kind of seems like what he is doing there.
[00:46:52]  First of all, we'll put aside the historical oddity of suggesting that no one has ever attempted to exterminate Judaism.
[00:46:58]  But the notion that the president of the United States is fighting Christianity by fighting radical Muslims in Iran, that's a hell of a take.
[00:47:08]  That's a hell of a take.
[00:47:10]  That the president is part of a global spiritual war, apparently, on Christianity by attacking, again, The Iranian mullahs who vowed to exterminate Christianity from planet Earth.
[00:47:24]  That's a move.
[00:47:26]  That's a move.
[00:47:29]  I mean, again, Tucker is so gone that in his morning newsletter, apparently this morning, he suggested that Israel doesn't care about human life when it says that people should not use the trains today because they're going to bomb a lot of the railroad tracks.
[00:47:45]  He says that that actually doesn't show their humanity because they could just not bomb the railroad tracks, which is like, I'm sorry.
[00:47:51]  It's an absurdity.
[00:47:52]  It's an absurdity.
[00:47:53]  And then, quote, would American leaders have the bravery to do the same?
[00:47:57]  What's he talking about?
[00:47:58]  Forming human chains around power infrastructure.
[00:48:01]  Or would they run for the hills to their private jets and remote getaways the moment their lives came under threat?
[00:48:06]  I have a question.
[00:48:07]  General Raisin Kane is standing next to the president during all of these pressures.
[00:48:12]  Is he also some sort of chicken hawk?
[00:48:13]  How does this work exactly?
[00:48:16]  Again, the goal of so many of these people to undermine full scale what America is, to turn America into a sort of rump organ, to turn America into a sort of vestige of itself.
[00:48:28]  It's pathetic.
[00:48:29]  It really is pathetic.
[00:48:31]  Tim Dillon, a An erstwhile comedian who has a podcast, I guess, where he makes fun of Erica Kirk disproportionately.
[00:48:40]  He was getting a lot of plaudits yesterday for cursing a lot and saying he doesn't care about Iran, which I mean, good for you, my dude.
[00:48:46]  Here he was yesterday.
[00:48:48]  I don't give a f about Iran either.
[00:48:50]  Sorry.
[00:48:51]  Throw him out if you don't like him.
[00:48:53]  It has nothing to do with me.
[00:48:54]  And the fact that the idea that I have to give a flying f, you should be standing with Iran.
[00:49:00]  Shut the f up.
[00:49:02]  Will you shut the f up?
[00:49:04]  Up.
[00:49:05]  If they want to throw the bums who run Iran out, throw them out.
[00:49:11]  But the idea that the United States of America, when people can't afford houses and they can't afford health care, spends all its time talking about the Middle East and Arabs and Jews and religion and the temple and slaughtering the heifer and Iran and Sunnis and Shiites.
[00:49:31]  Get what the is going on?
[00:49:36]  This was endorsed by Megyn Kelly as a very important rant.
[00:49:39]  Highly intelligent, because he said the F word a lot.
[00:49:42]  I'm just going to point out here that this bizarre notion that fighting off our enemies in Iran, ending a 50 year threat to the United States, destroying their forward capacity, destroying their nuclear weapons facilities, destroying all that, the notion that this is somehow deprived people of their snap checks is very, very, it's just a lie.
[00:50:03]  It's not true.
[00:50:04]  And it's always cover for the actual argument, which is you just want America not to be involved in the world.
[00:50:09]  And, you know, I also wish America didn't have to be involved in the world.
[00:50:12]  I do.
[00:50:12]  That would be wonderful, as if the world ran really nicely on its own.
[00:50:15]  But it turns out that the United States is the guarantor of global security because we have a bunch of pansy allies who won't help us, like the Europeans.
[00:50:23]  And if that's the case, then that's the case.
[00:50:27]  Again, when you look at the world situation right now, it's easy in the middle of a conflict to look at the fact that markets are down.
[00:50:35]  Yes, that's a problem.
[00:50:37]  Or that gas prices are up.
[00:50:38]  Yes, that's a problem.
[00:50:39]  You know what's more of a problem?
[00:50:40]  In America, that is so pathetically weak that it can be threatened for 50 years by a third rate power developing nuclear weapons and spreading terrorism all over the region and threatening the main waterways and be backed off because a bunch of podcasters say that they believe that the president is some sort of war criminal or because they want to spend more money, even more money.
[00:51:01]  We're spending $7 trillion a year.
[00:51:03]  We need to spend even more money on some sort of welfare program.
[00:51:09]  It's foolishness.
[00:51:11]  America remains the greatest and most powerful. Country in the history of the world.
[00:51:17]  That is because of the kinds of moves that President Trump is making to preserve that future, to preserve American power in the world.
[00:51:24]  Again, it is the same nation that is putting people around the far side of the moon, that is taking out the main foundations of the Iranian regime.

=== Democrats Underperforming (03:10) ===

[00:51:32]  That is the same thing.
[00:51:33]  That is the same coin.
[00:51:35]  They are two sides of the same coin.
[00:51:37]  You don't get one without the other.
[00:51:39]  That is the reality.
[00:51:41]  And it should be the reality.
[00:51:42]  And it's a reality that is worth admiring.
[00:51:46]  Because an America that is powerful in the world makes for a better world.
[00:51:50]  And meanwhile, a lot of dyspepsia over the election cycle.
[00:51:55]  People suggesting that Republicans are going to get blown out because of the war in Iran.
[00:51:57]  Let me first of all point out the date today.
[00:51:59]  It is April 7th.
[00:52:00]  You know when the election happens?
[00:52:02]  November.
[00:52:03]  Let me ask you, what were you thinking about eight months ago, seven months ago politically?
[00:52:09]  Do you even remember how many news cycles ago that was?
[00:52:13]  So the notion that Iran is going to somehow decide the election is silly.
[00:52:17]  But beyond that, congressional Democrats got a problem.
[00:52:20]  That problem is that they're crazy and no one likes them.
[00:52:23]  So, Harry Enton at CNN points this out.
[00:52:27]  Given the political wins and whatnot, is six points really a big enough lead for Democrats?
[00:52:31]  Well, I would say this, Mr. Berman, and that is that this lead is historically low for Democrats at this point with a Republican president.
[00:52:38]  Because take a look here, and I'm taking a look at the average of all the polls Dem generic congressional ballot lead at this point in the cycle with a Republican president.
[00:52:46]  On average, their lead's actually slightly less.
[00:52:48]  It's five points.
[00:52:49]  That's less than it was back in 2018 when it was eight points.
[00:52:53]  And way less than it was during the 2006 cycle when it was 11 points.
[00:52:57]  So, yeah, Democrats are ahead, but they're only ahead by five with a president whose net approval rating is bordering on minus 20 to minus 30, depending on what polls you look at.
[00:53:07]  You'd make the argument Democrats should be way ahead, and they're just only sort of slightly ahead.
[00:53:15]  So, again, the Democrats are underperforming right now because we are in an off year cycle and the polls actually have not moved all that much.
[00:53:22]  When you look, for example, at the generic congressional ballot for 2026, what you see is that, honestly, like the Republicans were running a little behind and they're still running a little bit behind.
[00:53:32]  That's where we are in terms of the generic congressional ballot.
[00:53:36]  Right now, Democrats are running about five points ahead of Republicans.
[00:53:40]  That's grown some since the end of April, I mean, since the end of March, rather, but not massively so.
[00:53:49]  They've had about a five point steady lead on the Republicans since essentially the beginning of February.
[00:53:55]  So nothing really has changed very much here.
[00:53:58]  And I wouldn't expect it to change very much in either direction, actually, at this point.
[00:54:03]  Why?
[00:54:03]  Well, the Democrats are truly radical.
[00:54:06]  It'll be fascinating to see what happens in 28.
[00:54:08]  Our sponsor is CalShee.
[00:54:09]  If you check out the CalShee markets on the 28 nominations, Gavin Newsom continues to retain the lead.
[00:54:16]  29% of people saying Gavin Newsom's the likely nominee, followed by AOC.
[00:54:20]  At 10%, followed by John Assoff at 6.6%.
[00:54:22]  I don't know where that's coming from.
[00:54:23]  It ain't going to be John Assoff.
[00:54:26]  But the Democrats, the fact that Gavin Newsom is considered the most moderate Democrat says a hell of a lot about the party.
[00:54:32]  The Democratic Party has been skewing toward extremism in every possible way.
[00:54:36]  They've decided that their response to the podcast, bros, is going to be Jennifer Welch, which I guess some people like listening to her.

=== NYC Racial Equity Plan (05:22) ===

[00:54:43]  I don't know how.
[00:54:44]  I don't know what sort of disorder you must have to enjoy this sort of thing, but apparently some people do.
[00:54:49]  Here she was praising Hassan Piker.
[00:54:51]  You know, the guy who supports pretty much every terrorist group as well as the government of China.
[00:54:56]  And why Hassan is so important, the reason I even know who Hassan is, is because my sons listen to him.
[00:55:02]  And he has a massive network of engaging young men away from this horrific Andrew Tate, Joe Rogan.
[00:55:12]  I want to go triple Trump, quadruple Trump.
[00:55:15]  I want women to be submissive.
[00:55:17]  Hassan is the antidote to that.
[00:55:22]  So, okay, if that's the direction you guys choose to go, that you want to go with the guy who likes all the terrorist groups, all right.
[00:55:30]  Speaking of which, the Democratic Party continues to move in the direction of Zoran Momdani.
[00:55:34]  So, yesterday, Zoran Momdani in New York City released their preliminary racial equity plan.
[00:55:40]  Ooh, exciting stuff.
[00:55:41]  A racial equity plan.
[00:55:43]  On a scale of one to 10, how racist is it going to be?
[00:55:45]  Like a 17 or so.
[00:55:47]  Here is Zoran Momdani talking about, again, he's now just doing old jokes.
[00:55:51]  So, when I was growing up, The joke about the New York Times was that there would be a New York Times headline that said, End of the world tomorrow, black people and women hardest hit.
[00:56:00]  And that is where Zoran Manzani is now.
[00:56:03]  He says, Yes, we have affordability, but it's really about minority affordability.
[00:56:07]  Here is Zoran Manzani.
[00:56:10]  Man, I have to point out at this point that one of the funniest things here is that the New York City racial equity plan says, New York's history has been one of colonization, exploitation, and racial oppression.
[00:56:23]  That's the story of New York City.
[00:56:25]  The story of racial injustice in New York City.
[00:56:28]  So I'm just wondering can we consider Zorhan Mamdani a vestige of colonization?
[00:56:33]  It'd be like actual double colonization, kind of.
[00:56:35]  Almost triple colonization, actually.
[00:56:37]  Because you have colonization of Manhattan, and then you have Western colonization of parts of the Middle East and Africa where he grew up.
[00:56:47]  And then you have him coming from those parts to these parts to colonize America.
[00:56:51]  So he's like a triple colonization.
[00:56:55]  He's the full colonoscopy.
[00:56:57]  In any case, here is Zar Mamdani.
[00:57:00]  And while today's true cost of living measure confirms that the affordability crisis touches every corner of our city, we know that these effects are not applied evenly.
[00:57:11]  So often, it is black and brown New Yorkers who are hit the hardest.
[00:57:15]  This preliminary racial equity plan is the first step in developing a whole of government approach to tackling that reality.
[00:57:25]  So, um, what does that whole of government approach look like?
[00:57:29]  According to the New York City preliminary racial equity plan, quote, the first ever New York City preliminary racial equity plan is dedicated to New York's resilient communities whose voices have often gone unheard and unanswered.
[00:57:40]  We honor the individuals and organizations past and present who have tirelessly advocated for justice and equity.
[00:57:46]  And Mandani put out a statement as well.
[00:57:48]  Said New York is one of the wealthiest cities in the world, but too many people cannot afford rent, child care, food, transportation, or even time to breathe.
[00:57:56]  I love when people use phrases like that.
[00:57:58]  Time to breathe.
[00:57:59]  I feel like we can all afford time to breathe.
[00:58:01]  My evidence of this being that you're alive right now.
[00:58:06]  Time to breathe.
[00:58:07]  Like, I feel like we can breathe.
[00:58:10]  I don't know.
[00:58:11]  Call me crazy.
[00:58:12]  He says these pressures do not fall evenly.
[00:58:13]  They reflect decades of disinvestment, exclusion, and policy choices that left some neighborhoods, especially black, brown, and immigrant communities, with far less than others.
[00:58:21]  That's why in 2022, New Yorkers overwhelmingly voted to make racial equity planning a core part of how city government works.
[00:58:28]  And so he is doing the full DEI.
[00:58:32]  The statement from the city says that there is no economic justice without racial equity.
[00:58:36]  So we're just doing Ibram X. Kendi now.
[00:58:38]  They say that racial equity needs to be institutionalized into every facet of life and embedding equity into the very structure of city government itself.
[00:58:48]  The equity plan talks about Wall Street as a hub for trade, including the buying and selling of enslaved people.
[00:58:54]  Yes, clearly Wall Street was mostly powered by slavery.
[00:58:57]  Not true.
[00:58:59]  And they say there should be a budget reallocation and targeted investment.
[00:59:03]  To historically underserved neighborhoods, building on the 400 year trajectory of oppression, and directs agencies to build disaggregated data pipelines by race, age, and gender so they can measure all city functions in terms of racial disparity.
[00:59:18]  And then he also redefines poverty in this actual document.
[00:59:22]  They redefine poverty to include 62% of all people living in New York.
[00:59:25]  That's 5 million people.
[00:59:28]  He acknowledges that people are employed, housed, and meeting immediate needs, but classifies them as not meeting the cost of living with dignity.
[00:59:35]  Because they rely on public benefits, family help, or debt.
[00:59:38]  So the answer to that would be for them to be more reliant on public benefits and debt, I assume.
[00:59:44]  The new median annual true cost of living threshold for a family with children is $160,000.
[00:59:50]  In order for you not to be considered in poverty, a single adult needs $70,000 a year.
[00:59:58]  So, um, this is crazy.
[01:00:00]  And if they try to implement anything here, it's going to fail.
[01:00:04]  Not only that, it's likely illegal.

=== Live Wire News Update (04:03) ===

[01:00:06]  The Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmie Dillon, she put out a statement on Twitter, quote, sounds fishy, illegal.
[01:00:13]  Will review.
[01:00:14]  Uh, yes.
[01:00:15]  Yes, it does.
[01:00:16]  Yes, it does.
[01:00:17]  But this is where we are with the Democratic Party.
[01:00:19]  Their, their future is race conscious, race conscious socialism, essentially.
[01:00:27]  So sounds wonderful.
[01:00:29]  Are you joining us?
[01:00:30]  On the line to discuss the latest in news.
[01:00:32]  And he is the co host of Morning Wire and also the host of Daily Wire's newest show, Wired in Live, which airs every Monday through Thursday, 4 p.m. Eastern, to give you all the updates on what's going on in the news.
[01:00:42]  It's our friend, Cabot Phillips.
[01:00:43]  Cabot, how's it going?
[01:00:45]  It's going great, Ben.
[01:00:46]  The show was initially just one day a week, but the haters can't stop us.
[01:00:50]  We are now four days a week.
[01:00:52]  There actually are no haters.
[01:00:53]  Everyone's been shockingly supportive on this journey so far.
[01:00:55]  But regardless, we're now, yeah, like you said, four days a week.
[01:00:59]  Very excited to be going live.
[01:01:02]  No haters.
[01:01:02]  That must be so nice for you.
[01:01:04]  I'd love to experience that someday.
[01:01:05]  In any case, Kevin, tell us what can viewers expect to see from Wired and Live every afternoon?
[01:01:13]  Yeah, we've had the Morning Wire news show for about four years now.
[01:01:18]  That just goes in the morning, that's 15 minutes.
[01:01:20]  And our audience kept saying, hey, we need something later in the day.
[01:01:22]  We want something live.
[01:01:23]  So it's fully up to date on everything going on.
[01:01:26]  I want to be able to put something on while I'm driving home.
[01:01:29]  And so we started doing these live broadcasts during the election and during the inauguration.
[01:01:34]  And now we're doing them.
[01:01:36]  Four days a week.
[01:01:37]  Essentially, you know, it's a traditional live news broadcast.
[01:01:40]  It's just a lot more fun, a lot more daily wire for that matter.
[01:01:44]  So, you know, we've got any big story that's going on.
[01:01:47]  We're talking to experts.
[01:01:48]  So, we're talking to Iran.
[01:01:49]  We've got senators, lawmakers coming on.
[01:01:52]  We've got foreign policy experts.
[01:01:53]  Yesterday, we had former cabinet members on the show, lieutenant general and general the week before.
[01:01:58]  And then we're getting into, you know, some lighthearted, fun, crazy stories.
[01:02:03]  We've got culture reporters coming on.
[01:02:05]  On Thursday, we debated whether or not pit bulls should be banned.
[01:02:08]  We've got Talking about Disney adults and if adults should stop going to Disney if it's weird for them to do so.
[01:02:14]  And so a little bit of everything, but the exciting part is that it's live.
[01:02:18]  And you know, now that you're doing the show live, you know just the extra element and energy that brings to the broadcast.
[01:02:26]  Absolutely.
[01:02:26]  It does add some craziness to the day.
[01:02:29]  By the way, folks, you should subscribe at Daily Wire specifically so you can see Wired and Live.
[01:02:33]  It's part of Daily Wire's gigantic expansion in terms of our news coverage, including our huge expansion of our editorial team.
[01:02:41]  We've never had better content on our website.
[01:02:43]  We've never had better content on our app.
[01:02:44]  Wired and Live is part of that.
[01:02:46]  Okay, so where can people see it?
[01:02:48]  When can people see it?
[01:02:49]  And what do you expect to cover today?
[01:02:53]  Yep, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time on dailywire.com.
[01:02:57]  That is where folks can find it.
[01:02:59]  DW Plus app is the best place because I'm monitoring the comments section the entire show.
[01:03:03]  And at the end, we take questions live from the audience.
[01:03:06]  And so you've got to become a member to add those questions.
[01:03:11]  Today on the show, we're talking war in Iran.
[01:03:13]  And one of my favorite parts of this show is that we get to showcase just how many Daily Wire reporters we have all around the country.
[01:03:19]  So, yesterday I had Mary Margaret Olihan standing on the White House lawn coming in for the show.
[01:03:24]  We had Tim Rice, our DC bureau chief.
[01:03:26]  We had Cassie Akiva up in Boston.
[01:03:28]  We had our immigration reporter talking to us about what's going on in Texas.
[01:03:31]  So, we have this entire national editorial team at Daily Wire.
[01:03:35]  And I love this show because we get to show off just how broad our reach is and how much we've grown just in the last few months from an editorial standpoint.
[01:03:44]  Well, that is Cabot Phillips.
[01:03:45]  Go check out Wired and Live again every Monday through Thursday, 4 p.m. Eastern.
[01:03:48]  Cabot, thanks so much for the time and congrats on the show.
[01:03:52]  Thanks, Ben.
[01:03:55]  Alrighty, folks, we are going to transition to the members only portion of the program.
[01:03:59]  We have some culture to cover, and of course, we will be taking your questions as the show continues.
[01:04:04]  Become a member and use code Shapiro at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.
[01:04:08]  Click that link in the description and join us.